The Triumph TR7 was introduced in 1975 as the successor of the TR6. It’s interesting “wedge” design was marketed as “the shape of things to come” and it looked a lot like a hunk of cheese. Both coupes and convertible versions of the sports car were offered through 1982, with about one in five built being the droptop. So, this 1979 open-air edition is rarer than the coupe – and lots of them were sold in the U.S. We’re told it’s a one-owner machine with lower miles that “won’t last long.”
These little slingshots were powered by a 2.0-liter inline-4 that was pretty peppy with a manual transmission. A friend of mine bought one new back in the day and we roamed all over North Florida with it. During the production run of the car, management and the rank-and-file had issues with one another, and assembly quality suffered at times, leading to getting a bad rap in the press. But that didn’t stop British Leyland from cranking out more 141,000 TR7s. Plus a limited number of TR8s (same car with a V8 engine).
This 1979 TR7 seems to be in good shape, though well-used as you might expect for 45 years and 68,000 miles. The seller doesn’t offer any details good or bad about the car, so we’re guessing that maybe this is an estate sale. There are aftermarket covers over the bucket seats, though we don’t know if they’re there to hide the original upholstery.
If you like the shape of things to come and want an open-air car, this one’s going for just $3.500. It can be found in Neenah, Wisconsin (where it’s already been on the market for several weeks) and here on Facebook Marketplace. But keep your toolbox handy as vintage British sports cars of all brands seem to need regular tinkering. Another tip brought to us by “Lothar… of the Hill People”.
Probably not a bad price for one of these in driver condition, assuming the body is sound and it runs and drives.
The later years were better built, as they shifted production to the Rover factory at Solihull where they had less problems. Later cars were all 5-speed manual (as opposed to 4-speed in the earlier ones)
The styling is one of those divisive things… some people love it, many do not. It suffered from not being anything like its TR6 predecessor, which had continued a gradual evolution all the way from TR2 through to TR6. ….a bit like the way the Jaguar XJS which was a pretty impressive grand tourer in its own right, was always going to be marked down for “not being an E-type”.
If you’re not a classic car snob, and looking for a fun, cheap, classic summer convertible, this car makes sense.
I would really like to get own one of these again, but they seem to be sale-proof (still).
A “Wedgie”. Oh, these are the cars that had Triumph loyalists crying in their Stout Ale. This is what replaced our beloved TR6? For shame. Hey, hey, another Badger car, from one of those Injin named towns. “Neenah” is a Winnebago tribe term for water, and been there many times, in the Fox Valley.
The TR7 was such a radical change, we didn’t even look at it. It went again everything we held dear in a British roadsters. Some say it helped take Triumph down. I read, Harris Mann, so fed up with conventional designs, submitted a sketch of a TR7 as a joke, and management loved it. Some say the car had no character, but as I look at it today, it really was a pretty cool car. This car cost $8395 new, which was not out of line, and I’m sure non-purists thought it was a neat car, and it was. We were too ignorant to realize it, however.
I owned a TR7 and the big issue with them is the Head Gasket.
The block is Steel, the Head is Aluminum, and both metals contract and expand at different rates.
This caused the TR7 to have a bad rep for blowing head gaskets.
And YES, mine needed one as well. I’m not a mechanic but ,like my dad and brothers, I’m what one calls “A Jack of All Trades and Master of None”.
I replaced the head gasket, resurfaced the valves with pumice and one of those hand twist suction cups on a stick, rebalanced the carbs with a simple air flow meter, and the car ran fine.
Of course this was back around 1980 and the parts were readily available and fairly inexpensive.
Nice story Brian. Hey, my refrigerator just started making noise. Have any extra time this weekend?